Scene Template — module session
The prep read · duplicate into a module folder as sN-<slug>.html and mark it 🌊 Fluid
How to use this
This is the long-form page you read before the session. Its companion is sheet.html — the dense card you actually run from. Every session ships both. The mandatory slots below are set out in Module Design; the ones marked required are the ones this repo kept forgetting. Delete this box when you're done.
Order matters as much as the slots. Beats run in clock order, the page commits to one organising scheme (a timeline or a keyed site, not both), and stat blocks and NPC entries sit at the point of use — never collected into an appendix at the bottom. Number the read-alouds: if they don't run 1, 2, 3 down the page, a beat is in the wrong place. See Page order.
At a Glance
- Where
- TODO — the place, and how many zones it breaks into
- When
- TODO — time of day, and the soft clock that closes the night
- Who
- TODO — the opposition, zone by zone, in one line
- Purpose
- TODO — what this session is for in the arc
- Curtain
- TODO — the image the session ends on
General Features — required
Answer the ambient questions once, here, so no zone below has to re-litigate them. This is the block that makes a location read as a place instead of a list of rooms.
- Light. TODO — what's lit, what isn't, and what the party needs to see. Name the zones that are dark.
- Sound. TODO — the ambient noise, and what it masks. Set the DC to hear through it if it matters.
- Footing. TODO — listing decks, wet stone, rubble. When you call for a check and when you don't.
- Cover. TODO — what's stand-behind-able, so combats have geometry without a battlemap.
- Ceilings & verticality. TODO — heights, drops, what can be climbed and at what DC.
- The smell. TODO — optional, but it's the cheapest atmosphere in the game.
Zone 1 — TODO — band, ≈XP adj.
TODO — what's here and who holds it, in a paragraph. Bold the mechanical payload (DC 12 Wisdom (Perception), 40 gp) so it's findable at a glance.
- Terrain. TODO — the feature that gives this fight a shape.
- Tactics. TODO — opening move, positioning, and the objective — what they're trying to achieve, which is often not "kill the party."
- Morale. TODO — the condition on which they flee, surrender, or stop. Every roster gets one.
- Tell. TODO — the detail that rewards looking, and what it implies without explaining it.
Developments — required
If they sneak. TODO. If they talk. TODO. If they burn it / flood it / do the obvious clever thing. TODO. If they lose. TODO — and where that leaves them.
TODO Creature
Reskin of the TODO (MM) · size type, alignment · no house tweak / N house tweaks
House tweak — TODO. TODO — label every deviation from the printed block, so the lineage stays auditable.
Actions
TODO. Melee attack: +N to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: N (NdN + N) TODO damage.
The People in Zone 1 — delete if nobody talks here
TODO — the NPC entries for anyone the party converses with in the zone above, placed here rather than at the foot of the page. One h3 each: Description (sensory tag-run) · Mannerisms · Tell · Wants / Needs / Has · Standing · Grievance. Clone from npc-template.html; an NPC big enough to need their own page still gets a one-paragraph stub here.
Zone 2 — TODO — band, ≈XP adj.
TODO — duplicate the zone block above. Keep the same slot order every time: read-aloud → what's here → terrain / tactics / morale / tell → Developments → stat block → the people you talk to here.
The Curtain
End the session here — TODO, the two or three conditions that mean the night is done. Name the line you give a surviving NPC, if there is one.
Pacing — the TODO-hour shape
- Roughly: TODO ~40 min · TODO ~40 min · TODO ~45 min · curtain ~5 min.
- Running long? TODO — which encounter collapses into a hazard, and which opposition can be heard but avoided.
- Running short? TODO — what to play slow, and which conversation to let run.
- The one thing: TODO — the single beat that must happen. Everything else can flex.